New Proposed Changes for Our State Electoral District

On Friday (24th February), the Electoral Commission of Queensland’s (ECQ) Queensland Redistribution Commission released their Proposal For the Redistribution of the State’s Electoral Districts, with significant changes for Kallangur and Surrounding Suburbs.

What has changed?

Our current State Electorate district is “Kallangur” encompassing our hub of suburbs of Kallangur, Dakabin, Petrie, Murrumba Downs, and Kurwongbah.

With the new proposed changes there will be 3 districts, each taking pieces from our previous logical centeralised hub:

Kurwongbah – taking the suburbs of Kurowongbah and Petrie

Murrumba – taking the suburbs of Murrumba Downs, Griffin, and the majority of Kallangur & Dakabin.

Bancroft – taking the north-east bound slice of Kallangur & Dakabin and encompassing it with North Lakes.

What that means for us in Kallangur & Dakabin ?

With the implementation of this proposal, the suburbs of Kallangur and Dakabin will be split on 3 different levels of Parliment. Previously we were split in Council (Division 7 & Division 4), and Federally (Dickson & Longman), but were joined in State (Kallangur).

So yes, we will have 6 different politicians representing our two suburbs, and be even more confused at election time when we head to the booths. Not to mention trying to figure out who to approach for a local issue.

If you live north of Anzac Ave, your new Electorates will be one of these 6 combinations of representatives (council / state / federal):

Division 7 / Murrumba / Dickson

Division 7 / Murrumba / Longman

Division 7 / Bancroft / Longman

Division 4 / Bancroft / Longman

Division 4 / Bancroft / Dickson

Division 4 / Murrumba / Dickson

Two of our My K-Town Editors will have completely different Electorates now, both of which live in Kallangur, and only 2.6km apart.

What electrotates will our Surrounding Suburbs belong to?

The council / state / federal electorates for our other suburbs will be:

Murrumba Downs – Division 7 / Murrumba / Dickson

Griffin – Division 4 / Murrumba / Petrie

Petrie – Division 7 / Kurwongbah / Dickson

Kurwongbah – Division 7 & Division 11 / Kurwongbah / Dickson

We at My K-Town can not see the logical reason why Kallangur and Dakabin continues to get split. In fact the State District of Kallangur was the only common electorate we shared between ALL of our hub suburbs (apart from Griffin).

We who live in this hub, can see how our local hub and transport corridor are logically grouped, with more of a natural boundary of Boundary Rd (ironically), Bruce Highway (with the exception of Griffin, because there is no other way into Griffin, but via the West Side of Bruce Highway) and the Pine River to our South.

Our local businesses, schools, parks and shops reside in our hub and among our corridor and veins.

We have aleady found it detrimental that our hub is split at the Council level, with the Kallangur Library being closed in lieu for extra funding for the North Lakes Library, both of which existed in Division 4. Where else are we going to miss out on funding and support, with preferences given instead to our neighbouring un-split hubs with dedicated clear representatives?

Another way to look at the complexity of having split hubs, is to look at who we need to speak to, to get support in upgrading Dakabin Station, which feeds residents from Dakabin, Kallangur and Kurwongbah. Currently Dakabin Station is on the federal boundary of the Federal Seats of Dickson (for Kurwongbahresidents) and Longman; in Division 7 for Council; and in the Kallangur State District. When the proposed state boundaries are introduced, Dakabin Station will then be on the border of Kurwongbah District & Murrumba District. Leaving local advocates to now tackle 5 representatives for support or funding.

All too crazy now.

You will hear more from us at My K-Town about this proposed change, as we determine the best course of action to object to the splitting of Kallangur, yet again.